Another Mass Shooting

This is getting to be a far too common occurrence in the United States. There has been another mass shooting -- this time in New Orleans. This one occurred at a Mother's Day "second line" parade, and at least 19 people were wounded. Thankfully, it doesn't look like any of the gun shot injuries were fatal this time. It does look like there were more than one shooter though -- at least two, and possibly three.

A "second line" parade is where a brass band lead a line of people in a short parade through city streets, and is a fairly common event in New Orleans. But there is seldom any violence connected with these celebratory parades. Here's what New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said:

“These are unusual circumstances. We have second lines which occur in the city of New Orleans virtually every weekend at this time of the year. We had a full complement of police officers. It appears that these 2 or 3 people just for a reason unknown to us, started shooting at towards, or in the crowd. It was over in just a couple seconds.”

It is not known why the shooting happened. It could have been a couple of nuts, some gang-bangers shooting at each other, or terrorists (home-grown or otherwise) trying to cause trouble. Frankly, it doesn't matter why. What does matter is that there are far too many shootings in this country -- and far too many guns in the hands of dangerous idiots. And it past the time when something should be done about that.

I'm fairly certain the New Orleans police will probably catch these idiots, but more needs to be done. Recently, the Senate rejected an effort to close the loopholes in the background check law (meaning at least 40% of the guns sold in this country, will be sold without any background check at all). This allows felons and other dangerous people (including terrorists) to easily buy any kind of weapon they want. This bill needs to be re-considered (especially considering it is supported by around 90% of the population).

A background check law without loopholes might, or might not, have prevented the New Orleans shooting -- but it will save lives by preventing people who should not have guns from legally buying one. How many more mass shootings (like those in Phoenix, Aurora, Newtown, and New Orleans) must we see before we take some reasonable and constitutional action to reduce them and save lives? Closing the gaping holes in the background check law would be such a reasonable and constitutional action.